Ok so to keep my Dragoncon recap free of long paragraphs about costume minutiae, I decided to just make a separate post.
1. 18th Century Barbie
Like I said in the main recap post, it was really nice to get to bring this costume back after it had such a disastrous debut at Dragoncon 2015. Literally I nearly had a panic attack wearing it at dcon 2015 – it was too hot, it was too crowded, I wasn’t happy with the end result of the costume, and I wanted out of it. So getting to bring her back after her 2018 updates and having her be comfortable and get so many nice compliments was kind of a victory lap.
It was fun to take part in all of the Barbie-ness of the weekend. I wish I could’ve worn it again sometime over the weekend – but I wanted to wear it thursday to get it out of the way since it’s so big to maneuver in especially in the elevators, and I couldn’t have done the big barbie shoot anyway, it overlapped with the Leia shoot.
2. Seven of Nine
So I had some problems with Seven of Nine, but nothing that can’t be fixed – just the usual little things you run into while wearing something and have to correct.
First up the wig, I did really like it but felt like it was too big and thick. So I think before I wear this again I’ll take the thinning comb to it to try to make it look a little more natural.
Second, and biggest problem, was the prosthetics. The facial prosthetics just didn’t want to stay. When I first applied them, I put the pros-aide only on the prosthetic itself – and it was already peeling up about 15 minutes later. So after dinner, went back to the room and reapplied it, this time also putting it on my face. That helped and this time I was able to wear it for about 2 hours before it started coming up again. So that’s not bad. But I think the issue is that the piece is flat and trying to curve over my face. I think I may resculpt these myself on one of my face casts in the future so it’s fit to my face better, like my Ms Marvel masks.
Third, not a big deal but I discovered I couldn’t wear my shapewear under this – it’s a “swimsuit” style shapewear leotard, and where it ends at the hips/upper legs, it created dips I didn’t like. So I didn’t wear it. It felt like it still looked ok, I just felt a little “exposed” without it, so in the future I may get something that goes down the legs for something like this.
3. Wedding Leia
Wedding Leia did well. Was pretty happy with all the of the updates – especially the shortened wig which made it easier to wear. I just need to find a better bra to wear with it.
4. Breha (and Bail)
I was really happy with how Breha turned out. Only complaints were minor – like with wedding Leia, I need to find a better bra to wear with this. I had brought something I thought would work, but when I put it on, the lines of it were too visible through the top of the dress (how?? this material is so thick!), so I had to switch to something more “low profile” but that meant the straps were showing.
My belt also kept getting pulled off center – I’m pretty sure this is because I had my little bag attached to the back of the belt, and everytime we needed something out of it (Chase didn’t have pockets), I think it made my belt pull off center just from the manhandling. In the future I probably just won’t wear the bag.
Bail turned out better than I expected?? Like for pieces of his ROTS costume just smushed together with a robe made of leftover Padme fabric, I think it looked pretty dang good. The cape stayed in place nicely thanks to the elastic loops that attach to his belt.
5. Scully
Scully turned out to be a great late night, easy to throw on and walk around costume. Plus, pockets! I’ll be bringing her back next year.
Bonus was that I had sooo many people react positively to this costume! I think I got more pics in Scully than I did anything else I wore except the 18th century Barbie. Typical LOL
6. Star Trek Skant
I wore this for quite a while over the weekend – to the dealer’s room, and also for a while before our SNW photo op. Overall it did well. My only complaint was that after a few hours (namely the dealer’s room excursion) the bra got very painful and uncomfortable. Now I know. For future wearings where I might be in it for a long time, I’ll just wear a regular bra instead of the vintage one.
7. Arwen
This is the only pic I have of Arwen! I only wore it for this. Didn’t take any elf ears or the necklace, and I’m wearing gym shorts under it LOL So not really much to talk about here.
8. Nadja/Laszlo
I looooooved Nadja. This was so fun to wear. Only a couple of small issues to keep in mind for next time. Mainly that I don’t really know how to pose in this. I need some practice. I kept defaulting to this one pose which felt fine when doing it, but when looking at photos, it looks weird. So I’ll play with it when we do a white backdrop photoshoot and find something that works better.
I kinda think I might need a slightly bigger petticoat or even my smaller hoop under it? I’m going to play with that next time I have it out too. Also kinda think I need to go heavier on the eye makeup.
Also thankfully the teeth worked fine. I eventually got used to talking in them LOL
Ok now that we did this Jackie Daytona look of just bought pieces and a cheap Amazon wig, I really want to do a proper Laszlo costume. At the very least, I want to get him a better wig, this one sucked LOL He also needed some eyeliner. I’d like to make him a nice frock coat that goes better with my Nadja. Winter project? Sounds fun. I already have some patterns I can mod for him, just need fabric.
9. Jessica
Just put this on Sunday morning for some pics. The upgrades I did worked good – the sleeves stayed in place on top of my arm, no more slipping forward, and the hand portions looked nice.
I did not wear the tall boots. It was sunday morning, I don’t feel like twisting my ankle at that point LOL I only wore the walking boots. And I kept it bustled except for a few photos at the hilton patio and these pics we took just inside the patio.
10. Padme
Yep at the last minute, I took Liberty Dies instead of Packing. Because the hair piece matched better.
So despite this being an “old” costume I have a lot of thoughts to share here. Namely that I think I finally figured out a problem I’ve had with it since the start.
So when I first made this surcoat, I did the sleeves first and the collar was the last thing I did. And I kept having issues with the collar. One side kept wanting to flip down and I could not figure out why. I think I made like 3 collars total, and the third one was immaculate, perfectly symmetrical, perfectly lined up to the perfectly symmetrical collar on the surcoat. And yet one side kept flopping over.
So when I wore it at Huntsville this year, I kept messing with it and messing with it while I was wearing it and finally decided it just needed one hook and eye higher up. So I did that last week, right as I was packing it, I threw another hook and eye on.
Well it didn’t help because the 2.5 hours I wear wearing it at dragoncon the right side of the collar kept flopping over. I was again constantly messing with it and in the midst of that… I think I figured it out. It’s not a problem with the collar itself – it’s the tension from the sleeves. If I pulled the sleeve up slightly so there was no tension on the upper part of the surcoat, the collar stayed standing up. But as the sleeve would move back down into place, the collar would droop. And I think the tension issue is coming from the INTERIOR fitted sleeve, not the main outer sleeve – my guess is if I loosen it on the right side, the collar won’t get pulled down. I plan to mess with this some in the coming weeks. I’m gonna get to the bottom of this!
11. Lothal Leia
Ok so like FR I loved this way more than I thought I would?? It was super comfy, cute. My hairpiece worked great. I have no complaints here except much like with wedding Leia… need a better bra that doesn’t show so much!
12. Vader
Chase has a bunch of stuff he wants to redo on this. For my part, I was happy with all my sewn pieces, except his shirt ended up a little too long, so I’ll just tack it back to make it shorter for him before he wears it again.
13. Jedi Training Leia
I’m kicking myself for forgetting to put my spats on and only having like 2-3 decent pics with them on. UGH.
Overall all turned out good. Tunic was comfy, happy to have pants with pockets. The helmet was a little uncomfy when I wore it thursday – the top of the visor was digging into my skull, so when I rewore it sunday, I did my hair into quasi-Hoth Leia braids to give it some cushion and that helped.
Only 2 things to really mention here — number 1 is I need to learn how to use that lightsaber LOL Me and Chase arguing in the room for 15 minutes trying to figure out how to make it blue is not how I want to spend my con!
And second is that Chase wants to redo part of my helmet. I’ll leave that up to him.
14. Beefsquatch
The updates I made to Beefsquatch worked well. Basically I made a vest out of yellow cotton with a side zipper and sewed the burger buns to that, mostly on the shoulder straps. It made it more comfortable for him to wear.
Next I’m thinking about making an opening on the inside of each bun so we can remove the stuffing when it’s not in use. Chase is also thinking of replacing the batting with foam, so it doesn’t shift to the bottom, but I think if we can have a “stuffing opening” on the inside where we can add as much batting as needed, it wouldn’t be necessary, we could overstuff it when he’s wearing it, and then put the batting back in a bag for storage. We’ll see.
15. Star Wars outfit
Only pic I got of this but i loved how it turned out. Glad to have 3 of these now LOL